"Unemployed auto workers, factory workers, they have a lot of regrets about the past," he said. "A lot of workers are internalising, 'You succeed on your own merits and your own abilities, and if you fail, you're to blame'," Chen says. He isn't alone in seeing this pattern. Experts tell the BBC that job seekers in the US are now, more than ever, blaming themselves for being out of work, due in part to misconceptions about what it takes to succeed in America. [...] Meritocracy became the prevailing ideology, encouraging workers to aim high and reap the resultant rewards. Anyone could achieve greatness. Paupers could become princes. The more people made, the more likely they were to believe they were worthy of it. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology last year found that the higher people perceived their social class to be, the more likely they were to believe that success comes to those who most deserve it. [class warfare, meritocracy is ideology]